By Caleb Alexander

’m going to place my hands over my eyes and step right into this minefield. I’m shaking my head and laughing at what is to come, the blowback, the backlash, the condemnation, the accusations of blasphemy. The funny part is that a lot of it will come from people who look like me. 

I don’t talk about religion. I am a believer, a true believer, but in my Chris Tucker voice, I never, never, never, ever, ever, ever talk about religion. It’s too passionate a subject, and justifiably so. The only reason I’m even wading into the topic is because of my daughter. She recently asked me if I heard that Florida will ban Black fraternities and sororities because of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). I engaged her on the topic of DEI and its importance. Then we began to talk about the wholesale assault on Black inclusion and the assault on Black contributions to this country and the world. I found myself trying to reassure an unsure child, and after that conversation, I was angry. I was angry at the uncertainty these people had brought to my child. And so I decided to channel my anger by doing what I do, which is write. They came for my child’s mental, and now it’s time to go for theirs. I will go for the jugular and take from them the idea they hold most precious to their heart, their view of Brad Pitt meeting them at the pearly gates.

The culture vultures want to write Black people out of respectful commentary on human contributions to world civilization. To do this, they must rewrite world history, first by stealing the land and then by claiming our accomplishments as their own or claiming our achievements were someone else’s. They must dig the monuments up, chop off the noses, and then whitewash the paint before they present their findings to the world. No matter how hard they try to erase it or claim it as their own or someone else’s, our history is recorded meticulously on papyrus and carved in stone. 

As recorded in The Amarna Letters, Ramses II’s great-grandfather is Seti, also known as Shuta. I say this to say that this was a Kushite or Nubian family. They were as Black as their descendants who live in Sudan today. Now, if Ramses II was of Kushite or Nubian lineage, and Moses passed as his grandson, then Moses obviously had to look like Rameses II. And if Moses was a Hebrew, then the Hebrew people also had to look like Ramses II.

While it is important to note that the concept of race is a modern-day construct, the simple fact of the matter is all these people physiologically speaking, were of the Africoid phenotype. I point you toward the works of many scholars and experts on the subject, particularly the work of Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop who proved beyond a doubt the bio-ethnicity of the Ancient Egyptians. I also point you toward the writings of Herodotus, the Father of History, who wrote in his chronicles of the ancient world that the Egyptians were a Black race. He also noted that many of the people of that region during that period, such as the Libyans, the Colchians, etc. were also Black.

In Matthew, it’s written the Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution. To live among the Egyptians and successfully blend in and hide amongst the Egyptians, the Holy Family would have had to look like the Egyptians. Before the Italian Renaissance, depictions of Mary were of a Black Madonna. It was only after the Italian Renaissance it became popular to depict the Holy Mother as a Florentine Maiden. Even if you take the depiction of the Messiah as written in scripture, He was described as having hair like lamb’s wool and skin like burnished brass.  

I don’t know how many of you have ever felt the texture of lamb’s wool, but it sure ain’t Michelangelo straight. As my grandmother would say, that stuff is nappy! It will kink up, mat up, and even dread up if not sheared annually. We can’t leave out the burnished brass part of the description. Solid burnished brass is very dark in hue. I’m talking Michael Blackson black. I’m talking beautiful, sun-drenched, say-it-loud-I’m-Black-and-I’m-proud, black. Why am I giving you this information? What does this have to do with the assault on Black history or Black contributions to world history? In short, everything.

The culture vulture’s assault on your history didn’t start in Florida, Texas, or even during the birth of the American republic. It started millennia before. To conquer and colonize your land, they had to first conquer and colonize your religion. To justify their immoral crusade against you, they had to colonize and co-opt the very image of God.

But here’s the deal, God did not send a Roman Jesus to Europe. He could have if He wanted to. God did not send an Indigenous Jesus to Central or South America. God did not send a Chinese Jesus to Asia. God sent a Messenger that looked like you to you! God sent a Messiah that looks like you, to you, as His promise to you. He sent a Messenger to us to show us His everlasting love for us, to show us He has not given up on us, and to put a song on our lips, joy in our hearts, and to lift us out of the pith and mire. God’s word turned flesh, manifested itself as a beautiful hue of burnished brass that looked like you, with hair like yours, that walked among you and gave you a message of redemption and everlasting life. 

The culture vultures tried to push you to the side and change the depiction of the Messiah sent to you, so they could say that this message was for them and claim the Father’s favor was theirs and theirs alone. But what they did with this beautiful message was use it for conquest and subjugation. They tried to make The Father and The Son into accomplices for their thievery and bigotry.

In resurrecting the true image of The Messiah, we can resurrect our place in the world, stature, and contribution to human history. The major Western religions are African spiritual constructs based on African oral histories, African parables, derivatives of African religious texts, and African morality. But despite their attempts to bury our history, like our glorious Messiah, it keeps resurrecting itself. 

And now I’ve gotten this out of my system; I can go to my child and say, Peace be Still. As we resurrect the true image of the Messiah, we also resurrect our strength to deal with our challenges. His glorious visage reminds us of God’s promise to us, God’s faith in us, and His everlasting love for us. We should also resurrect not just the image but the most important commandment given to us as a guide to how we should deal with one another, especially during these trying times: Love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength, and to love one another as you love yourself. A beautiful message about unity for people with hair like lambs, wool, and skin like burnished brass.

The San Antonio International Association of Ministers’ Wives and Ministers’ Widows, Inc. (SAIAMWMW) and Proclaim Posses & Prevail, Inc. are partnering with WINGS (Women Involved in Nurturing, Giving and Sharing, Inc.), a non-profit established in 1999, who provides comprehensive breast health care services to women in Central and South Texas to sponsor “Faith over Fear” Fashion Show Extravaganza. They are joining forces to raise the bar for greater Quality of Life (QoL) outcomes for the underserved, uninsured and all who suffer socially, emotionally, and spiritually from the impact of breast cancer. The intent is to help set the state for building a stronger network of compassionate individuals, families, and communities in closing the gap from diagnosis to treatment.

We all likely know someone who has battled or survived breast cancer, and we are aware of the physical and financial impact cancer can have on individuals and their families. Therefore, supporters have an opportunity to be a part of this great event on Saturday, October 29^th at 4:00PM at the Ella Austin Community Center, 1023 N. Pine St. All donation amounts are welcomed and are appreciated. To understand how a donation can make an even greater impact, supporters may consider sponsoring a patient. Various donations amounts can help relieve tremendous burdens. For example, a $50 donation pays for one lab; $100 pays for one oncology appointment; $250 pays for one scan; $500 pays for one MRI; $1000 pays for three courses of chemotherapy; $1,500 pays for one radical mastectomy; or $6,000 pays for one woman’s radiation treatment. 

Everyone can help raise the bar, impact quality of life, and close the gap from diagnosis to treatment. For more information or to purchase a ticket call Michelle Reid at (210) 383-1723 or Sandra Jolla at (469)682-8199. Donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 40217, San Antonio, TX 78229.

Presented in Partnership with the National Endowment of the Humanities  

Featuring Remarks by First Lady Jill Biden 

Featured Performers Include JJ Hairston, Tamela Mann, the Morehouse College Glee Club 

(SILVER SPRING, MD) March 4, 2022 – Celebrating Black History Month, TV One will air The Soul of the Nation Gospel Concert, featuring remarks by First Lady Jill Biden and performances by top Gospel artists such as JJ Hairston and Tamela Mann. The prerecorded event will re-air on Sunday, March 6 at 5 pm EST/4C on TV One.

The celebration will be hosted by Grammy-nominated Juan Winans and will feature musical performances by Madeline Howze, Tamela Mann, JJ Hairston and The Morehouse College Glee Club. Closing the event is Bishop William Murphy, III, the founder and lead pastor of The Dream Center Church of Atlanta, one of the nation’s most influential ministries leading the way in worship and community outreach. The program celebrates the history and impact of Gospel music and is sure to bring warmth and solace to both American and global viewers alike.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the federal cultural agency that funds research, public programs, and preservation work in fields such as history, literature, and religion, will also feature NEH-supported projects and humanities experts in this year’s program. The event will include commentary from Jesse P. Karlsberg, PhD Senior Digital Scholarship Strategist, Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and Southern Spiritual Music expert, Rev. Dr. James Abbington, representing the Sounding Spirit initiative, based at Emory University, digitizing historic American sacred songbooks. 

This year’s event marks the first time the program is being aired in partnership with TV One. “We are honored the White House and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden selected TV One to be part of this monumental Black History Month celebration,” said Michelle Rice, president of TV One Networks. Through the decades, U.S. presidents of both the Democratic and Republican parties have held official celebrations for Black History Month, where Black leaders, celebrities, and allies concerned with and for the community gather for music, dialogue and fellowship. 

About the National Endowment for the Humanities: Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.